Lincs: Man set fire to the mattress in his flat and then walked away and let it burn

A man set fire to his flat on the seventh floor of a multi-storey tower block and then walked out of the building, Lincoln Crown Court was told.
Gainsborough Standard In Court logoGainsborough Standard In Court logo
Gainsborough Standard In Court logo

Keith Marshall set a mattress alight at his home in Trent View on Lincoln’s Ermine West Estate.

Andrew Scott, prosecuting, said that the previous day Marshall had phoned the emergency services threatening to start a fire.

And then he added: “At the end of the day I couldn’t care less.”

“Most of them are foreigners anyway. I’m a Nazi.”

Mr Scott said that Marshall, who has mental health problems, started the blaze in the early hours of 14th July last year before walking out of the 14-storey building.

He said: “He called his crisis team worker at 1.15 am.”

“He said he’d done something silly and had lit a fire on his balcony.”

“He told her he had been drinking alcohol.”

“Afterwards he telephoned the fire service but someone else had already phoned them.”

“The fire officers went into his home and found a lot of damage to the property.”

“He had smashed up the fixtures and fittings.”

“The fire which had set light to the mattress was put out fairly swiftly.”

Marshall later told police he did not think the fire was going to cause any harm.

Mr Scott said: “He accepted he left the building while the fire was alight.”

“He said he thought it would go out.”

The court was told that Marshall had a previous conviction for arson in 2007.

Two psychiatrists who examined him after the latest fire incident concluded he was suffering from mental health problems and should be detained in hospital.

Marshall, 24, formerly of Trent View, Lincoln, admitted a charge of arson on 14th July 2013.

He was ordered to be detained in a psychiatric unit under the 1983 Mental Health Act.

Judge Sean Morris , passing sentence, told Marshall: “I am satisfied, having read the reports, that you are suffering from a mental disorder the nature and degree of which requires you to be treated in hospital.”

Related topics: